Becoming a Team
by samantilles
Summary: Jack and Sam talk about how SG-1 became a team while watching Daniel recover after "Fire and Water". Eptag to EP 1.13-Fire and Water. Complete


**Title:** Becoming a Team  
**Author:** samantilles  
**Rating:** PG  
**Warning/Spoilers:** Anything through Fire and Water (Season 1-ep. 13)  
**Prompt(s):** Decompression  
**Summary:** Sam and Jack ponder when they went from a group put together to a team, post "Fire and Water" while watching over Daniel in the hospital.  
**Beta Thanks:** Super special thanks to Eilidh17 for her wonderful advice!  
**Note:** This was written as part of the Jack and Sam Friendathon over on LiveJournal (.com) Flushed out Daniel version is now available under the title "Coming Home" Plenty more whumpage there!

* * *

"How did this happen, Carter?" Jack sighed, seemingly upset while staring blankly at the object at the middle of the room.

"He rose to the surface too quickly. Nitrogen bubbles formed in his blood because of the-"

"No, not that. Geesh. Forget I asked anything." Jack adjusted himself in his chair, his body language telling Sam he was deep in thought.

"Of course, Sir." Sam turned in her chair away from Jack and gazed back at the hyperbaric chamber. Daniel was alive. Both Air Force officers sat quietly watching Daniel sleep peacefully in the glass tube of the hyperbaric chamber. Just ten hours ago Daniel returned to Earth re-born, so to speak; back from the dead. Just under twenty-four hours ago they held a memorial in honor of his death. Jack could have sworn he saw the glimmer of a tear on Sam's cheek, and shuffled his chair up against hers.

"How did this happen, Carter?" He repeated the question, his voice quiet and somber.

"I'm sorry, sir, I don't know what you mean." She turned back into him a little bit now that she wasn't being told off. Jack rested his left arm on the back of her chair.

"This." He waved his hand around to include Daniel but then waved his hand back and forth between Carter and himself. "When did we become a team? I mean, we've only been together what, eight months? I could be home kicking it back with a beer and the hockey playoffs, but no. I'm here."

"I don't know, sir, it just kind of happened I suppose. It's bound to happen at some point, or else the team ceases to exist." Sam sat in silence once more, pondering if she also felt as if SG-1 had bonded as a true team. Flashes of images and whispers of conversations past with her teammates flowed through her head, and she allowed herself a small smile. The first time she met Colonel O'Neill, during their first missing briefing, she pegged him as a chauvinist. His smug attitude and condescending nature had her planning ways to hand him his masculinity on a silver platter – he wouldn't be the first man she'd done that to in "this man's Air Force". No one treated her that way. She smiled a little more broadly when she remembered that she had enjoyed coming up with ways of also serving Dr. Jackson's masculinity to him on an identical platter if he crossed her once they gated to Abydos. She should have gone on the first trip, and she never forgot that she hadn't. But now glancing over at Daniel she knew he'd never be the chauvinist she'd eat for lunch. The colonel on the other hand… "It certainly wasn't before Simarka," she confessed casually.

"What wasn't before Simarka?" Jack questioned genuinely.

"When we became a team. I was ready to slaughter the three of you after that dress, the smirking, and the dropped jaws. It was more obvious the week afterwards when the three of you didn't know how to act around me. Poor Daniel turned a violent shade of fuchsia whenever he came within one hundred feet of me, and Teal'c kept trying to apologize."

"Hey, I acted completely normal after P3X-whatever!" Jack gave her a genuinely offended look.

"Of course you did, sir." She couldn't help but smile, suppressing a giggle. Jack had made a bet with every field officer to go up in a one on one match with Carter, confident that he'd clean up nicely, which he did.

"Hey, knowing you could kick half of the SGC's asses gave me great comfort when you went running off by yourself to fight your ex-fiancé." Jack absently waved his hand into the nothingness before him as he defended himself.

"That wasn't very team-like, was it?" Sam blushed and dropped her view from his. Going off on her own to face off with Jonas had been foolish, and at the time she was still determined to prove her worth to the team.

"There was no good way out of that situation." Jack shrugged his shoulders in forgiveness. "Besides, we've done dumber stuff since then." He smiled back at her in jest.

Sam couldn't help but snort a little in response. "Like getting ourselves killed by Apophis?"

Jack stared at her in mock offense. "Hey, we died as a team! We didn't need barbeques or dinners out to bring us together. Just a case of temporary, um…" He took a moment to come up with the appropriate word, "death," He stated dejectedly. "Maybe a team dinner might have been a less messy way to go?"

The pair broke out simultaneously in laughter only to have it cut short when they heard a small buzz and white noise coming from the decompression chamber. Daniel lifted his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose while he talked. "Hey, if I can hear you in here, you're way too loud! I'm trying to sleep!" While Daniel's voice was quiet and sleepy, it still expressed enough annoyance at being awoken, to guilt both Jack and Sam. They stood over the chamber and Jack drummed his fingers on the glass while Sam clicked on the speaker to talk to him.

"Sorry about that. How you feeling?" Sam cooed, issuing a warm smile. "The tech went on his lunch break, he'll be back shortly." She tried to identify his questions as he lazily glances about the room.

Daniel yawned verbally before closing his eyes. "Tired. Headache. How much longer?"

Sam glanced down at the chamber timer. "Um, another hour? I think Janet set you for a four hour dive. You want me to turn on the TV or something?"

Daniel shook his head, his eyes still closed. "No, I'm good. You could ask Jack to stop with the tapping, its beating in time with my headache."

Jack stopped with his hand poised above the glass. "Hey, you should be happy you got off so light there, Daniel. You've also won yourself a set of diving lessons. Didn't they teach you not to swim straight up to the surface in archaeology school?" Jack issued a devious grin when Daniel opened his eyes to glare at him.

"Last I checked, most archaeologists dig in dirt, not water. It's not like I was searching for the lost city of Atlantis, Jack. But I'll let you know if I'm lacking any particular skills I might need when I go searching for mythological lost cities." Daniel's hand went back to pinching his nose while the other palmed against his ear, rubbing it with frustration.

"Go back to sleep, Daniel," Jack ordered as he turned away from the hyperbaric chamber and took his seat once again. Sam promptly joined him, settling comfortably near but not too close to her commanding officer.

"So, have you talked to Sara since the whole "Unity" fiasco?" The silence was deafening even after only a few seconds.

She watched as Jack's face flashed several emotions, the foremost being both distraught and embarrassment. "Yeah," he sighed, "she realized a long time ago that she'd never get straight answers about what I do, so trying to explain the, uh, other me was a challenge, even for me." He turned away from Sam. "Apparently, he was a bit more forthcoming with my emotions with Sara than I've possibly ever been. Seems she liked him better." He threw out a mock grin to Sam before turning away to watch Daniel again.

Sam released a short chuckle and returned his grin with a quick smile of her own. "Daniel told me what happened. I didn't even know you had a family before that."

"About that," Jack interrupted then fell silent for a moment.

"Sorry sir, I know its-"

"No, I'm sorry," Jack interrupted. "Having you find out from Daniel was not what I intended. He was there when I was about to do something monumentally stupid. He saw right through me and made me face Charlie's death. Otherwise I might not have shared it with anyone. It's still a raw subject." He couldn't face her, preferring instead to drop his body forward and leaned his elbows against his knees, watching the floor. "As a team we need to trust each other with this kind of thing. I've been meaning to get everyone together since finding out Teal'c had a wife and kid of his own, and talk. I don't want to be surprised anymore with information the enemy can use."

Sam wanted to put a comforting arm around his shoulder, but regulations prevented her from even flinching her arm towards the innate gesture. "It might also be a really good idea to go over final wishes. I hate to say it sir, but we've already had a few close ones; Daniel just this past week, you on Argos, Teal'c in Cimmeria. Sam let her mind drift back to the heartbreaking chore of having to close down

Daniel's apartment only a few days ago. "We're the only ones who know what we have to deal with, and I can't think of anyone I'd rather have handle my affairs than you and the team."

Jack turned his head to look at her. "So are you bringing the scotch or the pizza to this little morbid shin-dig we're planning?"

Sam innocently looked back at him. "Beer, sir. Scotch would get us wasted too quickly. We'd forget half of what we talked about."

Jack couldn't help but release a good laugh. "Now, that's what I'm talking about! We're definitely on the same page, captain, definitely on the same page. Don't tell me you love hockey though, Feretti will break me in two if I dump him for you on hockey night!"

"Oh, don't worry, sir. You're perfectly safe!" Sam laughed and held her hands up in surrender.

Jack relaxed a little and leaned back in his chair, crossing his legs in front of him. Taking her cue from the colonel, Sam eased herself back and turned her attention back to Daniel sleeping in the decompression chamber.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Jack began squirming in his chair and tapped her on the shoulder. "Say, I don't suppose you have a yo-yo or a deck of cards or something?" His voice attested to his boredom, and he gave a pathetic effort at puppy eyes. Sam couldn't help but laugh when she twisted in her chair to pull out a small red pack of cards from her pocket. She was only surprised it took him that long to ask for them.


End file.
